Shadowdark Setting Looks Set To Be 2025's First Million Dollar TTRPG Crowdfunder

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Just launched today, the new Western Reaches setting for the Arcane Library's popular Shadowdark roleplaying game (which itself raised $1.3M in 2023) has flown past half a million dollars in the first few hours, and looks certain to join the Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club imminently!

[[Edit/Update--and it's done it! $1M less than 12 hours into the Kickstarter campaign!]]

2025 has been quiet so far this year on the million-dollar crowdfunding front. This new setting is a sandbox environment with new classes and ancestries, and various areas such as the Gloaming Forest, Djurum Desert, and Myre Swamp. It comes in two 200-page digest-sized hardcovers. Also included are new issues of the game's Cursed Scroll zine. The full core set will cost you $129, or $149 for a premium version, with fulfillment expected in December 2025.

At $670K at the time of writing, just 3 hours into the campaign, The Western Reaches is already the 7th most first-day funded TTRPG ever, having just passed 2024's Terry Pratchett's Discworld RPG: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork. It looks set to pass 6th place very soon, which is 2023's Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms - A 5e Tome. Only five TTRPG crowdfunders (so far!) have ever hit the million-dollar mark on the first day. You can see the full ranking at the Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club.

The Western Reaches are an unexplored land of fragile civilizations, majestic landscapes, and forgotten horrors that lurk in the dark.

In the Reaches, you could play as:

  • A painted witch from the steppes hunting for the secrets to deeper magic
  • An armored knight from the City of Masks guarding frontier villages from attack
  • A silent monk from the mountains searching for the assassin who killed his teacher
  • A scarred pit fighter from the desert looking to make her fortune outside the arena
  • A quick-witted explorer from the jungle who can find any artifact for the right price
  • A seafaring warrior from the northern isles who fights for the glory of the Old Gods
This sandbox setting is fast, elegant, and flexible in the signature Shadowdark style. You don't have to memorize lore; you'll discover it as you go. The world moves and grows with you as you explore it.


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You also have to be plugged in to find those things.

Nobody in my neck of the woods is going to walk into a shop and pick Stygian Library off the shelf.
I wish I could. I'm having a hell of a time finding Shadowdark on the shelf. I'd love it if a few OSR games and supplements were just casually in a store I could physically go to.
 

Yeah, the challenge of financially strapped FLGSes taking a risk on stuff that's not just WotC stuff is a real one.

I wish I could. I'm having a hell of a time finding Shadowdark on the shelf. I'd love it if a few OSR games and supplements were just casually in a store I could physically go to.

Absolutely. I would have to be the personal advocate to have my local shop pick up even Shadowdark, and with how things are going elsewhere...I doubt they would outlay anything on a game they dont know anyway.
 


I think that people that want SD design to do 'different' things are missing the fact that the basic game design is already doing that.
Shadowdark core definitely leans into weird fantasy and oddity. I was specifically thinking of how married to TSR D&D much of the fandom and 3PP is, as opposed to OSE that has shown a lot of innovation over the last few years.
 

Shadowdark core definitely leans into weird fantasy and oddity. I was specifically thinking of how married to TSR D&D much of the fandom and 3PP is, as opposed to OSE that has shown a lot of innovation over the last few years.
OSE has definitely had more time to innovate, and I suppose they don't necessarily have the same fanbase. I am interested in OSE but have never picked any up, for example, while I pretty much swallowed SD whole (as much as my finances will allow) once I took a nibble.
 

OSE has definitely had more time to innovate, and I suppose they don't necessarily have the same fanbase. I am interested in OSE but have never picked any up, for example, while I pretty much swallowed SD whole (as much as my finances will allow) once I took a nibble.
OSE the rules system is just B/X. But a lot of OSE creators have explored some really interesting riffs on the B/X adventure and setting standards.
 

OSE the rules system is just B/X. But a lot of OSE creators have explored some really interesting riffs on the B/X adventure and setting standards.
I think at the time I learned about OSE I wasn't in a good place to buy into a new game, especially since, knowing me, I'd end getting a bunch of supplements for it too. SD came at a better time for me.
 

Shadowdark core definitely leans into weird fantasy and oddity. I was specifically thinking of how married to TSR D&D much of the fandom and 3PP is, as opposed to OSE that has shown a lot of innovation over the last few years.

I think a decent part of that, is this.

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I dont think there is too much more to restore, before Shadowdark can start to explore other things, but I believe Kesley is going to be doing that anyway, when you look at things like the Wyrdling.
 


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